A team of academic experts from Leeds Beckett University are driving innovation and boosting productivity in the region by supporting the development of new Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology with Wakefield-based Riverside Greetings, a supplier of greeting card solutions.
By embedding the new technology, the team are set to dramatically boost the performance of greeting cards in the convenience and forecourt sector. It has been developed as part of a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), part-funded by the Government through Innovate UK.
Andrew Glen, Managing Director of Riverside Greetings, said: “Many small businesses struggle to access the resources they need to innovate effectively and at scale. By participating in a KTP we’ve been able to work closely with a team at Leeds Beckett University who have helped us to develop this initiative.”
The team has created an automated inventory and category management system that combines AI with RFID technology to analyse and increase the performance of greeting cards – whilst significantly improving the productivity and effectiveness of Riverside’s merchandising service.
The new, patent pending, technology, is now being piloted in several test stores in England. It will allow merchandisers to complete a full stock count of hundreds of cards by design in less than two minutes, with 100% accuracy – versus the current manual counting system which can take 30 to 45 minutes.
Andrew Glen added: “The project is innovative in a number of ways: firstly, because it employs RFID with relatively low value items; and secondly because it will utilise tags in close proximity to each other. This revolutionary new technology is going to provide us with real-time information and transform the overall performance of greetings cards in the sector.
“We are very excited about this new approach. Our conservative estimate for the scale of the opportunity for the sector measures it at £25 million, a sales figure which will generate approximately £12.5 million of incremental profit for retailers.”
